A group of escaped convicts that broke off from the Powder Gangers after the prison break have made headquarters in Vault 19. However, the group is divided amongst themselves on what to do and who to follow. Samuel Cooke, an anti-NCR revolutionary, and his group want to wage a war on the NCR, while Philip Lem and his group wants to surrender to the NCR as they see Samuel Cooke as overzealous and will only lead them to their deaths.
Walkthrough[]
Speak with Samuel Cooke and/or Philip Lem in the overseers' offices in Vault 19.
Enter the sulfur caves beneath the vault.
Cooke's objective: Kill all the fire geckos within the caves.
Lem's objective: Find a way to block off access to the sulfur caves. (requires 40 Science, 60 Explosives and 3 C-4)
Other option: Blow up both the the Sulfur Caves and the Vault. (requires 50 Explosives and 5 C-4, also fails the quest)
Report back to Samuel Cooke or Philip Lem.
Ending options:
Cooke: Ask Papa Khan about the Powder Gangers joining the Great Khans.
Lem: Convince him to surrender the group to the NCR, or ask him about joining the Great Khans (Speech check of 40). Ask Papa Khan about the Powder Gangers joining the Great Khans.
Report back to Samuel Cooke or Philip Lem.
Quest stages[]
For Philip Lem:
Stage
Status
Description
1
Find a way to cut off access to the sulfur.
2
Quest finished
Report back to Philip Lem.
3
Speak with Papa Khan in Red Rock Canyon.
4
Quest finished
Report back to Philip Lem.
For Samuel Cooke:
Stage
Status
Description
1
Eliminate the fire geckos in the caves under the vault.
2
Report back to Samuel Cooke
3
Speak with Papa Khan in Red Rock Canyon.
4
Quest finished
Report back to Samuel Cooke
Notes[]
You can find four packs of C-4 within the vault:
One is between filing cabinets in the clinic, behind the front desk; one is located between the two vending machines in the cafeteria; one is outside the underground entrance to the overseer's office near the doorway with the firehose box in a nearby pile of junk; the last one is located under a couch in the Blue Sector living quarters (not the first floor). The couch in question is located on the second room to the right and is on the far side of the room. The C-4 should be next to the right front leg of the couch.
Despite the fact that the convicts in the vault are escapees from the NCR Correctional Facility, they are not labeled as Powder Gangers, and while they will comment on you relative to your Powder Ganger reputation, it has no effect on being able to obtain and complete this quest. However, either convincing Philip Lem to join the Khans or agreeing with his decision to surrender to the NCR after destroying the caves will gain favor with the Powder Gangers.
Killing Papa Khan will cause the immediate failure of this quest.
The doors to Philip Lem's overseer's office will be locked after completing the quest by helping Cooke, and the only way to get in is through the cave. Upon entering the room, you find no one there and only a puddle of blood with unidentifiable body parts. Going back and talking to Cooke reveals that he has killed Philip Lem.
The doors leading to Philip Lem may not always be locked.
If the quest is completed by helping Philip Lem form an alliance between the Great Khans and the Powder Gangers, the vault will be empty the next time it is entered.
If the you use C4 to destroy the vault, the car park at the entrance will become a small mound of debris with smoke billowing out of it.
A detonator is not required to detonate the C-4 plastic explosive, although it is required to use C-4 during regular combat.
Having Boone as a companion will sometimes cause trouble, as he may start attacking the Great Khans, which result in failure, best thing to do is make him wait at Vault 19, since you will be coming back.
PCPlayStation 3Xbox 360 If following the Lem quest line, the map marker will tell you to go to the sulfur caves entrance (now blown up and billowing smoke) to find and talk to Lem about joining the Great Khans after talking to Papa Khan. Lem is actually located in the Overseer's Office, and if you've opened the stairs leading to the sulfur caves he can sometimes be found stuck there.
PCPlayStation 3Xbox 360 If you enter the Overseer's office from the elevator entrance (Hard lock) in the sulfur caves and open the Overseer's Office with the Average terminal, or just go through this route at any time, you may have some issues with your companions as mentioned above in less detail. When you ascend the stairs into the office your companions become confused and instead of following you up will run out the door back into the caves. If you are at the top of the stairs with a companion and run down they will run back into the vault. It is possible, however to keep your companions with you during this if you manually "push" your companion up and down the stairs. Just crouch and slowly move them and they will glide up, or down the stairs from your push.
This seems more like a path finding issue. Your companions will go back the way you came and reappear by your side a few minutes later, the same way they will if you jump from a ledge, (yes, it's an oddity).
PCPlayStation 3Xbox 360 If the player chooses to destroy the sulfur caves and the vault, but didn't kill Cooke personally, then the ending sequence will still show Cooke still alive and the Powder Gangers terrorizing the Mojave.
PCXbox 360 After speaking to Papa Khan for Cooke and returning with the news, it is possible to enter Lem's office through the main door (not the overseer tunnel) to see the piles of bloody entrails. Returning to Cooke will not trigger the dialogue where Cooke admits to killing Lem; he asks you once again to go and speak to Papa Khan on their behalf even though this is now impossible.
PC It is possible to re-enter Vault 19 on the PC version using the no-clipping command to pass through the mound of earth that appears over the entrance.
PlayStation 3 The option to blow up the caves may not appear.
PlayStation 3 If you have initiated the quest Oh My Papa and haven't triggered the conversation with Regis, the option to ask Papa Khan about Samuel Lem's group is not a dialogue option.
